This presidential election has not lacked for clowns, and in a circus Herman Cain fits right in. But as the Black clown, Cain's foot-in-mouth moments mostly involve insulting the Black community. This could be to establish his independence from the community in order to earn his bona fides with the GOP electorate or a way of appeasing the white conservatives he's courting. Or it could be that his foot and his mouth are magnetized. Whatever the reason, as a Black person, the Hermanator experience has been as distasteful as rancid, spoiled, stinky, curdled milk.

First [Cain] told Blacks we were "brainwashed into not being open-minded or considering a conservative point of view." Brainwashing is a highly offensive charge that suggests the Black mind is defective or has gone to sleep. In a world where Black intelligence is constantly maligned and denigrated and underestimated, this cuts deeper than the quick. Alleging that we’re not intelligent enough to make rational political decisions would hurt if it weren't so comical coming from his mouth. Also, has the GOP offered a reasonable alternative?

Then the Black Sarah Palin said, "Obama's never been a part of the Black experience in America." Now we're doing teenage-level disses? What is this narrowly imagined Black experience that Obama has never been a part of? His background is unique, but he's Black, so it was a Black experience. Also, never includes now, and Obama today is a central figure in the modern Black experience: we're in the Age of Obama.